


Colours of Fate

by scarletladyy



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Pregnancy, Unplanned Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-02
Updated: 2012-01-02
Packaged: 2017-11-18 16:29:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/563065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scarletladyy/pseuds/scarletladyy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It would only be a minute until the potion turned purple or yellow, and told her her fate. If she saw purple, she'd escaped her mistake, but if she came across yellow, her whole life would be turned around.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Colours of Fate

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kinky_kneazle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kinky_kneazle/gifts).



> Written for kinky_kneazle for Dramione Duet 2011. All the thanks in the world to my beta.

The contents of the potion swirled round and round as Hermione added a small amount of green liquid to it. Once it was all in, it would only be a minute until the potion turned purple or yellow, and told her her fate. If she saw purple, she'd escaped her mistake, but if she came across yellow, her whole life would be turned around.

She pinched her eyes shut and counted to sixty, not wanting to watch the potion change colour for fear of an incorrect early result. Her hands grasped the cup so tightly the pain was nearly unbearable, but not so much as the wait, and the ticking of the clock kept disrupting her counting.

By the time she got to what she thought was sixty she almost couldn't open her eyes, but in one swift motion she did so and her stomach jerked as she saw the colour of the potion: yellow. 

She was pregnant, and it could only be by her one night stand of two weeks ago.

*

_Breathe_ , she told herself, as she walked into Draco Malfoy's workplace. He owned his own business, she knew, but she didn't know exactly what it was. The pictures all over the walls soon told her though, and she rolled her eyes in disgust. _Trust him_.

The woman at the reception desk was exceptionally pretty, probably to go along with the theme of his business, but she looked at Hermione like she was looking at something dirty on her shoe.

"Yes?" She began tapping her quill against the desk as though Hermione was wasting her time.

"I'm here to see Draco Malfoy," she said, with as much confidence as she could muster. She wasn't feeling very confident, particularly not now she knew he created porn magazines, but there was no way she was letting this woman get the better of her.

"Do you have an appointment?" The woman asked haughtily, a sly smile creeping across her lips.

Hermione shook her head. "No. But it's urgent."

"Apparently not urgent enough to make an appointment," the woman quipped. "You'll have to come back tomorrow. He's busy all day today." 

"I very much doubt that," Hermione snapped. The woman hadn't even looked in the diary, how did she know Malfoy wasn't free again for the rest of the day? "I demand to see him now." It had to be now, she knew, for she probably wouldn't be able to muster up the courage again. If she left now, she wouldn't come back, and that wasn't good for anyone.

The woman's face turned sour. "Demand all you want, love. You're not seeing him. If you want a shag, you'll have to wait."

"Excuse me!" Hermione's voice was shrill and loud, and she hadn't meant it to be so, but she was extremely offended by what this woman had said. The woman snorted, and Hermione glared at her. She was just about to demand to see Malfoy again when he himself opened a door to her far left and leaned against it, his eyebrows raised.

"Ahh, Granger. How did I know that was you?"

Hermione walked up to him and pushed passed him into his office. "I want a word. _Now_." He smirked at his receptionist and followed her into the room, shutting the door after them. Only when she noticed what was sprawled across the desk and floor did she realise this was a mistake. "Don't you have somewhere more appropriate we could talk?"

"I think you'll find this is very appropriate, Granger. This is my line of work, and I'm very good at what I do. You're taking precious time away from me, so if you don't hurry up and spit it out, I'll have you thrown out."

"Fine." She sat down in the chair behind the desk, trying to ignore the images of nude women in various positions in front of her. "Look, I... We're... I'm..." She couldn't say it.

"You're what?" Malfoy prompted, looking extremely impatient.

"Pregnant," she hissed, angered at his impatience on such an important matter. He wasn't to know, sure, but he was just such an arrogant arse she wondered what the heck she'd ever seen in him enough to sleep with him. If she remembered correctly, and her memory of the night was slightly fuzzy, she'd been drinking. Heavily.

" _What_?" Draco's eyes were as huge as saucers, and he was staring at her with such a look of shock and horror on his face that for a slight second she felt some satisfaction that she'd messed up his perfect life. Until, of course, she realised she'd messed up her perfect life too. "You can't be serious. Is this a joke? Because it's not a very funny one, Granger."

"No," she said tersely. "It's not a joke."

"You've used the pregnancy check potion?" She nodded, and he rubbed his hands across his chin anxiously. "What are we going to do?"

Hermione found herself shocked that Malfoy had said 'we' in that statement rather than 'you', which implied he wasn't going to tell her to bugger off and deal with it on her own. She wanted to smile at his maturity now, but it just didn't appear to be quite the right time. Maybe later. With this baby, there would be a lot of time spent together. "I don't know. I want to keep it. You?"

"You're carrying my child, Granger," he said, pointing out the obvious. "Of course I want you to keep it. This is my heir."

_Of course_ , Hermione thought, for she had momentarily forgotten how traditionalist the old Pureblood families could be. "Right. We're agreed then." 

Malfoy nodded and picked up a quill and parchment from the shelf beside the door. "What's your vault number?"

"What?" Hermione almost did a double take; it was just so random.

"Your vault number, Granger. What is it? You're going to need a lot of money to make sure our child gets the best they deserve, and being a Malfoy, that will be quite a lot. Also, I think you should probably move into Malfoy Manor—"

"Woah. Slow down!" Hermione stood and held her arms up in surrender. She had expected to come in here and be told to bugger off, not given money and be invited to stay at his house. "I'm not moving in with you, and I shan't be taking any of your money."

Draco arched an eyebrow. "Pardon? You can't seriously expect our child to grow up in your one bedroom flat in Muggle London, can you?"

"How do you know where I live?" Hermione frowned; the night they'd spent together had been in a Muggle hotel in London, sure, but she'd never made any mention of where she lived or what type of property it was.

"I'm a Malfoy, Granger. I have connections." He put the quill and parchment back on the shelf and stuffed his hands in his pockets. 

"Spies, more like," she muttered under her breath. "Look, thank you for your offer of help. I appreciate it, but, I can do fine on my own."

Then he threw out the statement that made her actually consider his offer. "If you're living with me, nobody ever has to know you're pregnant. Nobody even has to know we're living together."

Now that was certainly tempting.

*

It was four months into Hermione's pregnancy, and she was already wishing she hadn't gone through with it. Not seriously, mind. She was starting to put on weight now as her morning sickness had finally ended, which meant that contact with her friends was pretty much out the window. She had also taken to wearing baggy Muggle clothes, and while Harry gave her strange looks, nobody else seemed to have noticed.

She was tired a lot of the time and had even taken to napping during her work breaks, and the constant urination was becoming a very annoying habit. She'd just come back from the toilet when she found Malfoy sitting down in the cafe. She'd asked him to meet her there but she had arrived early, preferring to wait for him than have him waiting on her. She grabbed her cup of tea from her own table and joined his, sitting down opposite him.

"Morning." He was smiling at her, something he very rarely did, and she knew exactly why. "Are you ready?"

Hermione sighed heavily. "Yes, I'm all packed."

"Good. We'll fetch your stuff after this then." He went for a sip of her tea but she batted his hand away. "All right, fine. I take it you're still experiencing mood swings then."

She glared at him, but realised she was proving his point. "The baby and I are doing fine, thanks for asking."

"That was indeed going to be my next question," he said, calling over a waitress and ordering his own tea. "I believe you have your next scan in a few weeks. Will you allow me to accompany you this time, or shall I wait outside again? I'm perfectly aware that Muggle hospitals are not a place I really want to be, but since you insist on using them, I really have no choice, now, do I?"

"Yes, you can come. But you're not coming to the antenatal classes." He rolled his eyes, but she wasn't going to budge on that. It was embarrassing enough as it was, and since they were all Muggles, Malfoy really wouldn't blend in well at all. She didn't even want to imagine the situations he might get himself into.

"I've put you on the second floor. It's mainly used for guests, so you'll have it all to yourself. Mother and father and I are all on the third floor, so you won't be disturbed." The waitress brought over his tea, which he sipped eagerly in spite of the heat. "You have your own en-suite and walk in wardrobe, too, and the house elves are on hand throughout the day and night if you ever need anything."

Hermione forced a smile. "Thanks." It wasn't that she wasn't grateful, she was, she was just still getting used to the whole sorry situation, and the fact that she could have civil relations with Malfoy. "And your parents really don't mind? They're not going to hex me in the middle of the night?"

Draco laughed, and she couldn't help but do so too. "They're happy to welcome you into their home. You are carrying their grandchild, you know. Admittedly, they were shocked at first, but now they're getting used to the idea."

"Right." She wasn't sure she liked the sound of that, if they were only just getting used to one of her kind being the mother of their first grandchild and Malfoy heir. ""They're not going to tell anyone...?"

"No," he said sharply, for he had already told her this many times before. "They're keeping perfectly schtum."

Hermione nodded her head slowly. "Good. I really don't want Harry and Ron finding out."

"You know they're going to find out eventually, right? When you give birth, they're going to wonder why you kept this baby a secret. Perhaps they'll even feel betrayed. Merlin, I don't know how Gryffindor's feel when they're lied to. Slytherin's don't give a damn." 

"I know I have to tell them at some point before the birth, but just not yet. I'm not ready." Her mouth twisted into a thin line as she thought about Malfoy's words, and how she knew he was right. Harry and Ron _would_ feel betrayed, especially since Malfoy was the father. A pang of guilt ran through her.

"In fact," Malfoy carried on, "won't they wonder where you've moved to?"

Hermione shook her head. "No. I'm not telling anyone I've moved. I've kept the old place, so if they ever want to come round, I'll just take them there."

Malfoy smirked. "You know, I think there's a little bit of Slytherin in you after all."

_Hmph_.

*

"Are you fucking _kidding_ me, Granger?" Malfoy stood there in his green-checkered pyjamas, looking exhausted with his usually kept hair all over the place. Well, it was about three in the morning. "You woke me up because you want ice cream _now_?"

Hermione nodded. "The house-elves wouldn't go out and get some, said they didn't know where, so I got you. After all, you did say you would always be there for me." 

"Yes," Draco started, running a hand through his hair, "but this... this is insane! Nowhere is even open at this time."

"How do you know? You haven't looked!" 

He arched an eyebrow. "Trust me. Look, we probably have the ingredients and there's a thousand and one cookbooks downstairs. Just ask the house-elves to make you some. I'm going back to bed. Don't wake me for something so trivial again. I thought the bloody baby was coming!"

Absolutely fuming, she mimicked him as he made his way out, giving her a look that said he wasn't in the mood to be messed about. Well, neither was she. She was going to find a bloody cookbook that told you how to make ice cream, give it to the house-elves, and then make damn sure Malfoy got a bowl of it, too.

The cookbooks were easy to find, since Narcissa had her kitchen fairly organised, and she tasked the house-elves to flick through the pudding ones and find her a recipe for ice cream. They looked around anxiously, but did as she said anyway. She didn't like using them, but she certainly couldn't make it. She felt guilty as they bustled around the kitchen, and just as she was nodding off she received a little prod to her arm.

"It is ready, Missus."

Hermione blinked a few times to wipe away the sleep, then took the bowl of ice cream from the little elf. She smiled politely and thanked him for it, then took the whole bowl with her as she made her way to Malfoy's room. She opened the door ever so quietly so as not to wake him, crept up to his large king size bed, and emptied the whole of the bowls contents onto his sleeping face.

He jumped up, screaming and moving around as though he were being attacked. He reached for his wand on his bedside table and pointed it in her direction, before wiping the cold and wet substance out of his eyes and away from his mouth. It took him a few minutes to focus on her and realise what had happened, but as soon as it clicked, he dropped the wand and yelled, "Granger! What the fuck do you think you're doing?"

"Draco? Draco!" Narcissa came running into the room at full speed, Lucius trailing behind her. They were both in their expensive silk dressing gowns and brandishing their wands out front. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine, mother," he hissed, glaring at Hermione. "I thought you wanted the ice cream to eat, not chuck all over me."

"I did," Hermione started, making her way towards the door, "but then you pissed me off, I lost my appetite, and I had all this ice cream and just didn't know what to do with it." With a sly smirk on her face that could compete with any of the Malfoy's she left the room leaving three glaring, staring faces behind her.

*

"I'm not doing it! I'm not bloody well doing it!" Hermione screamed, clutching her pregnant stomach and watching Malfoy's eyebrows raise as she swore.

"You have to do it, Granger," he said, so serenely and calmly it made Hermione want to punch him. "In fact, you're going to have to do it whether you like it or not."

She glared at him and leant against the wall, knowing he was right. She'd gone into labour a couple of hours ago, and as the contractions increased, so did her swearing and her refusal to go through with it. Not that she really had a choice, but it felt good to be able to say it. What was even worse were that his parents were right outside, looking in through the window ever so composed. As soon as she actually began giving birth, she was having those curtains closed.

"Look, Granger—"

"Why do you still call me by my last name? I think we're on first name terms now, _Draco_." His face softened a little and she immediately felt guilty for being such a bitch. She never was usually, or at least, she hadn't been before this pregnancy, but her hormones had been all over the place and she felt horrible every time she had to lie to her friends and decline invitations. Since she'd been heavily showing, she hadn't seen any of them for fear they might figure it out. They thought she'd become a recluse.

"Fine, _Hermione_. I suppose you are the mother of my child." Everything went silent then, and they both stood staring awkwardly round the room. The only sounds to be heard were those of nurses and doctors bustling around in the background. Then he suddenly blurted out, "I'm not an arse, you know."

"I know," she replied quietly, for if there was one thing she'd learnt about Draco Malfoy over the last nine months it was that he could actually be a decent person. "And I'm not a bitch, either."

Malfoy laughed and said, "Could have fooled me." She smiled; it was obvious he was only messing around. "After the baby comes and you've finally told everyone the truth, where are you going to stay? Are you going back to your flat?"

Hermione shook her head. "No. It's too small." She'd loved her little home, but it just wasn't an appropriate environment to bring up a child in. She hated to admit it, but she knew she needed his help. "If you want me out, though—"

"No," Malfoy said suddenly, cutting her off. "I'd, we'd," he gestured to his parents, "love you to stay. I want to be as active in my sons life as possible."

"Son?" Hermione questioned. "I have a feeling we're having a daughter."

Malfoy rolled his eyes. "My heir is going to be a boy, Granger, not a girl. We can have the girl next."

"Excuse me?" Her jaw was open so wide if it could have hit the floor it would have. "You know we're not technically together, right?"

"Er, yeah. I've been meaning to talk to you about that." He was blushing, and she realised that what he was about to say he must wanted to say for a while. She didn't speak, not wanting to ruin his moment. "I was going to ask you if you wanted to make a go of it."

"You want to go out with me? A Mudblood?" The words came out of her mouth before she even knew what she was saying. 

"We slept together, didn't we? And you are having my baby. I guess that qualifies you as suitable. A Malfoy never leaves his family in the lurch. We look after our own, and you are now one of us." She raised her eyebrows at that, but found the thought slightly comforting. As much as she knew her friends would be there for her, there was nothing like having the father involved. "So?"

"Can I think about it?" He nodded, and it was then that another contraction came over her. She grabbed onto the wall and held her stomach hard, bending low as she screamed the place down. Her face went bright red and she scrunched her eyes shut. "You're not coming anywhere near me ever again, Malfoy!" 

"That's just the pain talking, _Hermione_." He smirked at her and she lunged towards him, but the pain stopped her going further than a couple of steps forward. No sooner had the pain started did it pass, and she relaxed herself, walking over to the bed and sitting down. She took a few moments to compose herself and blew the hair out of her face.

"Perhaps I didn't quite mean that," she said quietly, completely humiliated. "I shall consider it. Now could you please go and fetch me some ice cream?"

Malfoy's eyes narrowed. "Are you going to chuck it all over me again?"

"No," she said, laughing. "At least not for another eight minutes, I should think." He ran off quickly then, presumably wanting to get her the ice cream and have her eat it before another contraction came upon her. While he was gone she thought about what he'd said, and found herself thinking that it might actually work. It seemed Malfoy could be someone she could be with. After all, she'd done it with him once. Admittedly they were drunk, but he'd been good to her, she remembered vaguely from the fuzzy memories she had. Not to mention how good he'd been to her and the baby over the last nine months.

And then there were his parents. She glanced at them and they smiled at her, and she thought about how they'd taken her in and cared for her every need. Well, their house-elves had at any rate. She smiled back as Malfoy returned with the ice cream.

"Thank you, Draco." Of course, it certainly helped that he was very attractive, with his sleek blond hair and beautiful eyes. Yes, she thought, being with Draco seemed like something she could do. 

Though she knew that in eight minutes, she'd be cursing him to hell and back, and thinking herself crazy. But if crazy was what she was, then so be it.


End file.
